“Yeah. That sounds so fucking stupid, but …”
“No.” Graham lifted his head. “No, I like that thought.”
“Yeah?” Thad’s grin was crooked.
“I think it’s sort of romantic, you know?” Graham admitted. “I was thinking about it earlier. I never would have considered being with a guy if it hadn’t been for you.”
“I’m that hot, huh?” Thad teased.
Graham laughed but quickly sobered. It was good to see Thad was feeling better. Cracking jokes. But he really needed to stop acting like his looks and his street smarts and his photography skills were all he had to offer.
“You are,” Graham agreed. “But you’re so much more. You’re kind and protective and thoughtful and you’re—you’re a good person.”
“Everyone keeps saying that,” he muttered.
“Well, maybe you’llbelieveit someday,” Graham said lightly.
“Maybe.”
Graham swallowed past his building nerves. “Hey. I want you to know something.”
“What’s that?” Thad looked wary now.
“I see a future for us,” Graham said. “A reallygoodone. The kind where—we get to watch each other change and grow. Where we get through the tough times together and we support each other.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, I do. And I hope that’s not too much. I hope I’m not?—”
His words were cut off when Thad cupped his cheeks and kissed him. It was slow and sweet. “No,” he said when he drew back,smiling. “It’s not too much. I’m glad. I’m glad you see that for us.”
“Do you?” Graham asked. “If you don’t right now, that’s okay. I mean it, I can be patient …”
Thad’s smile was breathtaking as he sat back. “I don’t know how it’ll look, really. That always seemed so—so unlikely for me, I don’t have a fucking clue what a future together would even look like. But that’s okay, as long as you have some ideas, we’ll get there.”
“We can figure it out together,” Graham offered.
“Yeah. I’d like that.”
“But I don’t have to know what it would look like to know I want it,” Thad said, his voice going a little thick now. “All I have to know is that I love you.”
Graham let out a shaky breath. “You mean it?”
“I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t. And I do.” Thad closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again. They looked so dark right now. Such a beautiful shade of deep brown. “I love you, Graham.”
Graham didn’t know what to say. He’d come out here bracing himself for the worst. Bracing himself for Thad to end things. To find out he’d been fired.
He’d been prepared to fight for him. To beg Gavin for another chance. To beg Thad not to run, not to give up on them.
But love … no, he’d never expected that.
Graham let the word fill him, grew buoyant and happy with it. But Thad looked apprehensive now, like he was starting to worry that Graham didn’t feel it too.
“I love you too,” Graham blurted out because he didn’t want Thad to ever doubt that. “I do. Oh, God, you have no idea how much. You make me so happy.”
“Even though I don’t have my shit together? Even though I leave you in the middle of the night?” Thad looked away.
Graham shrugged. “As long as you’re there when I fall asleep and you leave me cute little notes in the morning for when I wake up, that’s enough.”
